Hey everyone, why don’t we just enjoy this while it lasts?

He may well be a transcendent talent. He could be worth the suffering of a twenty-something win season. He might be the single piece of the puzzle that could flip the Celtics from “rebuild” to “contender” in a matter of a year or two.

But what is tiresome, at least to me, is the invocation of Wiggins’ name (or Julius Randle’s, or Jabari Parker’s) after every unexpected Celtics win.

Look… I get it. I really do. Just like Gary Washburn said in the quoted section of today’s dump, you’re saying this for the right reasons. You want to do what it takes to get back to the mountain top. You want the Celtics to be relevant again, and you want it to happen now.

But let’s take a step back and understand that wins are just as important to this team’s future as the losses.

First, and most importantly, it’s letting these players know that even though this roster is flawed, there’s no true substitution for hard work and effort every single night. The Miami Heat are 180 degrees from the Celtics in terms of talent right now, but their lack of effort defensively last night opened a door, and the Celtics found a way to bust through it for a win.

That’s important. It’s important to know that when you’re in a fight, you can win when the guy takes you lightly. It’s not exactly great for your confidence when you know the guy you’re fighting is half-assing it, but he still beats the shit out of you. The feeling of “I can’t even beat someone who isn’t even trying to beat me” is a pretty shitty one.

Some of these guys on this roster will be on the roster next year, and the year after that, and maybe for years after that. This kind of confidence will be nice to tote around for all that time.

Secondly, isn’t it nice to see Brad Stevens already getting results? Isn’t it nice to see him have the balls to start a rookie in Kelly Olynyk and go to him for a potential game-tying jumper? Or what about making Gerald Wallace the trigger man even after all he said recently? Gerald hasn’t exactly been the model veteran in interviews, but Stevens stuck with him, and Wallace made a perfect pass.

And what about that play? That was such a good play that guys actually executed. Jeff Green buried a game-winner in LeBron’s face.

Those are all good things!

This is what it sounds like to me when I hear people complaining about wins…

“I need to have plastic surgery so I can be popular and girls will have sex with me.”“But we’ve been out twice this weekend… and you’ve gotten two girls’ numbers.”“NO… I CAN’T BE POPULAR OR ATTRACTIVE NOW… THEN PEOPLE WILL THINK I DON’T NEED THE SURGERY!”

Don’t worry, we’ll still need the surgery. This team still has a lot of flaws it needs to correct. The losses the team needs are coming, especially when the league makes note of the fact that it will take an actual effort to beat these guys. The rest of the month’s schedule is still pretty brutal, and the Celtics still have a lot of the same problems they’ve had before.

It might take a while for the water to find its level in the NBA, but that’s not at all uncommon. An if it makes you feel any better, most of these other teams that are supposedly tanking are winning games too. You don’t really think Philly is going to hang around that second-seed in the East for much longer, do you? And the Suns probably won’t finish third in the West.

Bad teams can win a few early games but still end up bad. The Celtics are a lottery team, but they’re a lottery team with the heart and balls to beat you if you take them lightly.

So wouldn’t it be nice to just enjoy what you’re seeing right now? Isn’t this really the best of both worlds, anyway? You get to see some wins here and still, ultimately, end up with a high lottery pick.

Kick back, enjoy this while you can. The rest will take care of itself.

I was pro tanking until this result. Really proved how exceptional green is. With rondo in the team we could be a dark horse in the olayoff race. But I feel to contend we really need a strong scoring athletic centre.

Brick James

Olynyk/Favarani/Humphries is the most talent we’ve had at C for a long long time.

pierce Hart

Olynyk is more of a big PF plus none of them are talented enough to lead you to the promised land

ian

This is not a lottery team. I guarantee it.

Frank Aziza

What bothers me is people forget one thing about this team, we have a SUPERSTAR on the bench in street close. If he can play like his old self and maybe Danny can make a trade and bring in another star, we can be back in the thick of things without tanking. Plus you can get very lucky with a 20th pick too.
We went from last place in 07 to the finals in 08…I think we are in a good place right now that we can have a quick turnaround without tanking.

Celticsfanatic

We lost 18 straight games in 2006-07 and if not for such mediocrity (even though we didn’t get the second pick, we wouldn’t have gotten the fifth pick if the team played like people want this year’s team to play) we wouldn’t have gotten Ray and therefore wouldn’t have gotten KG. .500 basketball is no man’s land, and much to the dismay of Boston fans, the Celtics aren’t an exception. Nothing good can come of it, especially if fans think Rondo is a legit number one.

Frank Aziza

If you watched the 2010 and 2012 playoffs you should realize he is a true number one. Had he played last year we would have beat the Knicks, matchup great against Indiana and could have found ourselves in the conference finals. Especially if Sullinger and Barbosa were healthy, Rondo would have lead us much farther. He’s a monster in the playoffs. You have to really pay attention to notice it. He can dominate a game without scoring a point at times.

KGino

I’m loving every second. As a true celtics fan, how can you not feel anything but pure joy after burying a game winning 3 in Lebrons eye. Anyone not happy with that result can suck it

david

As long as we go down fighting I don’t care if we lose. But I do think Danny will trade some guys away at the deadline and that will most likely enhance our lottery position.

analogy man

weird analogy

Mike C

Are there seriously Celtic fans out there that were not completely thrilled with that fantastic game last night? That’s hard to believe. For all the Pro-Tank the season backers… Anyone remember Sam Bowie? WHO? EXACTLY! End of argument!

bill_nair

Yup Ive seen so many “Celtics fans” on twitter and other boards complaining about the winning. Saying we cant be winning games. I want Wiggins as much as the next fan but I do not want to battle with the 73 sixers for worse record ever. I hope we don’t get Wiggins and he proves hes not what people are making him out to be. People need to be careful what they wish for.